Social Limitation: Recognized Area of Expertise (One of the Best Medical Examiners in the Country) (Occasionally, Minor)

20

Social Limitation: Secret Identity (Frequently, Severe)

Catacomb | Points Summary

Characteristics Cost:

101

Base Points:

175

Powers Cost:

175

Disadvantages:

175

Talents Cost:

3

Total Experience:

0

Perks Cost:

13

Spent Experience:

0

Martial Arts Cost:

0

Unspent Experience:

0

Skills Cost:

58

Total Points:

350

Background

The City Morgue... that's the last place that a person ends up. Or at least that's the last place that some people end up. By and large, most people die of natural causes and don't even come into the queue that leads there. That's even true of Detroit. But in Detroit, there's still five times as many as most other cities of its size.

Every city needs a staff of pathologists to examine the dead. Every city needs a Medical Examiner to head the department who is interested in why people die of unnatural causes. Detroit has Dr. Hank Lowe. He gives out autopsy assignments to his staff, saving the most difficult or most politically sensitive for himself. And if autopsy evidence needs to be presented in court, he is the one that is called upon. For the most part, though, the ire of the plaintiffs or defendents rest upon the opposing parties and opposing witnesses. While there were a handful of times that courtroom anger was directed at Dr. Lowe, one particular case changed his life completely.

The Leoni family has risen to power in the city. Corruption of the government at all levels is the norm now. Crime of all sorts has increased and that certainly did not escape the Chief Medical Examiner's notice. At last, a Leoni - and not just any Leoni, but one of the top family members - was a defendent in a case that involved blackmail and murder. Then over a period of two months three things occurred that made the chance of putting a Leoni in jail diminish greatly. First, the judge assigned to the case took a sudden leave of absence citing a family emergency in New York City; the new judge assigned had previously presided on three trials involving Leoni associates, all of whom were acquitted. Then, the prosecuter was found dead in a car that had sped off a road and into a ditch. Finally, a key eyewitness suddenly had cold feet and decided not to speak.

That was when Hank was visited by city councilman Jack Strong, who owned Great Lakes Herbal. While, the company legally made herbal and vitamin supplements, increasing evidence had it that they also provided the black market with high tech narcotics for rich kids and performance-enhancing drugs for athletes. Ostensibly, the councilman was just 'making the rounds' to see that the city government was operating efficiently. But, it was clear to Hank that he also wanted the Medical Examiner to question the results of their autopsy findings for the Leoni case or at least make it appear as if the science was vague and inexact.

When Hank made it clear that he had full confidence in his findings, Jack Strong left in a huff. But that night, as he was finishing his notes, three men broke into the lab. They all had the appearance of body builders and the glazed eyes of addicts of some sort. One of them shouted at Hank, "Ya shoulda listened to the Councilman, doc. Now we gotta do what we do!"

Another wheeled the body of the victim in the Leoni case into the X-ray space while a third man turned all of the power switches to maximum. "There's gonna be an accident here. The papers are gonna say that you left the machines on and accidentally destroyed the evidence."

"But that won't matter a whole lot," said the first man. He hoisted Hank up and shoved him into the nearest cadaver box and then locked the door. "You ain't going to be around, either."

Hank pounded at the door to get it open, but it was too hard to open from the inside. Then something strange and awesome happened. The next time that he pounded at the door, his fist went through it and a hole opened up. There was little time for amazement. Hank had to get out there and save the evidence. He pounded at the remaining parts of the door and finally was able to squeeze through.

He ran to the x-ray machine and shut it off. The machine itself was severely damaged, the victim's cadaver was, too. As Hank stood there, thinking about what to do next, he scratched his head... and a small spray of dirt fell down. Looking at his reflection in the glass operating window, he could see why. His whole body from head to toe was made of dirt and rock.

With a little thought, Hank realized that being bathed by extreme levels of X-irradiation - levels that far exceeded a lethal dose - had changed him. If there were other factors involved, he couldn't say for certain which would have added to the effect. One thing that he did know for certain was that if he could control this dirt monster thing, Hank could make a difference for the people of his home town on two fronts of the war on crime.

Epilogue

If it weren't for the ventilation system, this place would have smelled like, well, death. Instead, there was little scent at all except, perhaps for a tinge of hypochlorite bleach. Dr. Hank Lowe slapped the long edge of the folder against the counter twice so that all of the papers within aligned themselves to that edge nicely and did not stick out of the other side.

Hank glanced at the folder that read Case 42H-0953897. The trial was over. He had presented the evidence telling the tale of the dead victim for her. But, it wasn't enough. The judge was likely corrupt, the prosecutor was clearly intimidated, the jury was possibly tainted.

Tucking the folder under his left arm, he walked to his assistant's desk and left the clipped stack of copied documents there with a note that read 'Scan and Archive 10.15.2005'. Then he walked across the room and opened the twelfth middle file drawer.

Over the past few years cases involving organized crime had become steadily more difficult to prosecute. The city stank like a fish rotting at the head. Politicians, judges, and lawyers were corrupt - many were at least. And if a case got the wrong combination of them, then by bad luck or by manipulation of the system, there was virtually no chance of a good outcome. And, with all of the crooked cops in the city, it seemed likely that many cases got cut off before they even entered the system.

He felt the vibrations through his feet. This sort of sensation was still relatively new to him, but he had felt it before enough to know what it meant now. They were heavy, but soft, and from six feet - three people, large, trying to be stealthy. Hank quickly shoved the folder in the filing cabinet. He pulled out the file drawer above and below it.

"Yo, doc," called out a squeaky, deep, masculine voice. "I don't know how ya heard us this time. We got a guy in security to open up for us so we wouldn't hafta make noise. But no file cabinets are gonna stop us."

The three bodybuilding thugs bolted across the room and slammed the three drawers, but found no one there.

With a rumbling noise from the ground, the last thug was embraced by two arms of rock and dirt. "This place is guarded by Catacomb. You are trespassing."

But before the muscle man or his cohorts could do anything, he was pulled into the ground. The rumbling stopped, and the two remaining looked at each other with fear. Quickly, they began arguing as to whether they should be looking for the doctor that they were sent to 'deal with' or whether they should leave.

But the rumbling came back. And a man-shaped thing made of dirt and rock tossed aside the unconscious form of the first thug and came towards the other two. "Tell your bosses that Catacomb is going to clean up Detroit... from the bottom up."

The two muscle men backed away from Catacomb and then turned to flee to the door, but ran right into a wall of dirt. Their dual impacts were enough to knock the wall down, but not before another was in the clutches of the earthen monster and pulled underground. The last thug fled.

Several minutes later, Hank called Officer Alyshia Jones, the only cop that he knew he could trust. "Alyshia, this is Hank. I've got two perps here. And, I've got evidence from our security camera of them making an illegal entry. I don't know what you want to do with them. But they're here and I'm keeping them in two morgue cadaver boxes. I guess that we can discuss what to do next when you get here. Thanks."

Personality

As a medical examiner, Dr. Hank Lowe has always worked hard to put criminals behind bars and to stop the innocent from paying for the crimes committed by others. As Chief Medical Examiner of Detroit, he has stuck his neck out to present the evidence, to help imprison the guilty and to help pardon the innocent. Now, as Catacomb, he can also use his powers to prevent crime or to halt it in its processes.

He has seen enough death to be relatively unaffected by it except in his desire to punish those who have caused unnecessary deaths of any sort. And, in some ways, others see him as having a morbid fascination with death. He doesn't really talk to others about death or people who have died, and he really doesn't engage in any sort of protracted conversation with people.

Quote

"I'm going to clean this city from the bottom up."

Motto: "I speak for the dead."

Powers

In his human form, Dr. Hank Lowe has only a single power - the ability to sense vibrations transmitted through earthen substrate like dirt, rocks, or concrete - otherwise he is a normal man with a high degree of skill as a forensic pathologist. When the Catacomb Transformation is activated, his body becomes one of dirt and rock. In this form, he is able to manipulate dirt and rock in a number of ways as well as walk through earthen material as most people walk through air.

Appearance

Doctor Lowe is an average sized man who is usually found in a blue lab coverall. Out of the lab, he usually wears black jeans and a long sleeved shirt although he dresses up or down as the situation befits. As Catacomb, even his clothing is covered with rock and dirt, which vanishes when he reverses the Catacomb Transformation.